Hose coupling remover

ABSTRACT

Apparatus for extracting a hose coupling from a hose, said coupling having a shank inserted in said hose and a coupling member extending axially outwardly from the end of said hose, said apparatus comprising a frame, means mounted on said frame for gripping said coupling member, a stationary support in said frame having an opening therein in which said coupling is inserted to a position with the end of said hose abutting against the surface of said support about said opening and means for actuating said gripping means to pull said coupling member away from said support to remove said shank from said hose.

United States Patent Bawden et al.

[54] HOSE COUPLING REMOVER [72] inventors: Orval C. Bawden; Frank A.Dimick, both of Orem, Utah [73] Assignee: United States SteelCorporation [22] Filed: Dec. 4, 1969 211 Appl. No.: 882,250

[ 51 Apr. 4, 1972 3,217,395 11/1965 McBroom et a1. ..29/234 X PrimaryExaminer-Andrew R. J uhasz Assistant Examiner-Leon GildenAttorney-Donald S. Ferits [57] ABSTRACT Apparatus for extracting a hosecoupling from a hose, said coupling having a shank inserted in said hoseand a coupling member extending axially outwardly from the end of saidhose, said apparatus comprising a frame, means mounted on said frame forgripping said coupling member, a stationary support in said frame havingan opening therein in which said coupling is inserted to a position withthe end of said hose abutting against the surface of said support aboutsaid opening and means for actuating said gripping means to pull saidcoupling member away from said support to remove said shank from saidhose.

4 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures PATENTEUAPR 4 1972 3,653.1 14

SHEET 1 OF 2 Fla 2 IIVVEIVTORS ORWL GI BAWDEAI 8 FRANK A. DIM/6W Aazv/k124 4 4 HOSE COUPLING REMOVER This invention relates to apparatus forextracting or removing a hose coupling from a hose, more particularly,an armorclad, rubber hose.

For elevated temperature service, for example, on industrial furnaces,water or other coolants are often conducted to a cooling section by oneor more hoses. A standard hose coupling may be used made up ofinterconnected male and female portions. The male portion is oftenmounted on the furnace. The female portion has a shank inserted in thehose and a coupling member extending axially outwardly from the end ofthe hose to receive and to hold the male portion. The hose used is oftenan armored rubber hose. When the hose is worn and must be discarded, thecoupling is removed from the hose for reuse. In this severe service theshank of the back coupling is held very tightly in the hose. It has beenremoved by cutting the hose behind the shank end with a shck saw andthen cutting the remainder of the hose with a hammer and chisel topermit its removal from the shank. This method is time consuming andunsafe.

It is therefore an object of the invention to provide apparatus forextracting the shank of a coupling from a hose that will substantiallyreduce the time and work required for the job, that will effect theextraction without damage to the coupling and will remove the safetyhazard that has been present with the use of prior tools for extractingcouplings.

This and other objects will be more apparent from the followingdescription of our invention and the attached drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of apparatus, partly in section, forextracting the female portion of a hose coupling from a hose;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a portion of the apparatus shown in FIG 1;

FIG. 3 is an end elevation taken on line III-III of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an end elevation of a pair of hinged plates and clamping meanstherefor for inserting a coupling before withdrawing a shank from ahose;

FIG. 5 is an end elevation showing another embodiment of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is an end elevation of an adapter to receive a smaller coupling,and

FIG. 7 is a plan view showing the adapter of FIG. 6 in operatingposition.

Referring to FIGS. 1-3, apparatus 2 includes a frame 4, which may be ahorizontally positioned supporting plate. A stationary support 6includes a vertical plate 8, mounted on frame 4 intermediate the endsthereof, and reinforced by spaced. gusset plates 10. Plate 8 has anopening 12 therein extending downwardly from the top thereof andresembling a semiellipse. Support 6 preferably includes said verticalbackup plate 8 and a second or retaining plate 14, abutting plate 8 andhaving an opening 16 therein. Preferably, openings 12 and 16 have acommon axis. Support 6 receives a coupling 18 and a portion of a hose 20for extraction of the coupling from the hose. Coupling 18 has a shank 22inserted in hose 20 and a coupling member 24 extending axially outwardlyfrom the end of the hose. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 the end of hose 20is mounted to the right of and abuts against the surface of support 6about the opening. Coupling member 24 is mounted to the left of support6 in a gripping member 26, the latter being attached to a pulling means28 for moving the gripping member 26 to pull coupling member 24 awayfrom support 6 to remove shank 22 from hose 20.

All commercially available hose couplings have a shank and a couplingmember in the female portion thereof, although there may be variationsin individual features thereof, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the shank 22of coupling 18 has a serrated portion 30 which is inserted in the end ofhose 20 until a flange 32 thereon abuts against the hose end. A smoothflank portion 34 is joined to coupling member 24. Hose 20 is here shownas comprising a rubber core 36 surrounded by an armor layer 38.Industrial hoses may have additional layers therein, for example, layersof cloth and/or wire.

As shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 4 the second or retaining plate 14 preferablycomprises a pair of lower and upper hinged plates, wherein a hose isinserted in the semi-circular opening 40 in lower plate 42. Upper plate44 having a semi-circular opening 46 is then rotated about hinge member48 until the two plates abut. A clamping lug 50 hinged on plate 42 isthen rotated into a vertical position where a body portion 52 thereoffits into a slot 54 in plate 44. An internally threaded handle 56 isthen turned clockwise on a mating threaded portion 58 of body 52 toclamp plates 42 and 44 together to define the circular opening 16.Opening 16 preferably has sufficient clearance to receive the flange 32,yet to firmly hold the abutting end of hose 20 against the surface aboutopening 16. Retaining plate 14 is preferably mounted on a plate 60, toproperly position the axis of opening 16. Plate 60 is mounted on frame 4and preferably abuts plate 8.

Another embodiment of retaining plate 14 is shown in FIG. 5. Theconstruction and assembly thereof are the same as shown in FIG. 4,except that a plurality of short pins 62 are spaced around opening 16.This embodiment is used preferably with smaller diameter hoses. When asmall hose is inserted inside the pins, the hose is centered to assurefirm abuttment thereof against the surface about opening 16.

A crosshead 64 is mounted for linear movement with regard to plate 8 ontwo, spaced, parallel, slide rods 66, mounted on plate 8 with bolts 68.Gripping member 26 includes a block 70 having a transverse slot 72extending upwardly from the bottom of the block at one end thereof. Slot72 serves for mounting block 70 on the crosshead. Spaced set screws 74can be tightened to hold block 70 in place on the crosshead. A pair ofarms 76, 78 are mounted on and extend outwardly from the opposite end ofblock 70. Arms 76, 78 terminate in respective internal flanges 80, 82.As illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, arms 76, 78, the end 84 of block 70from which said arms extend and internal flanges 80, 82 provide anopening for inserting and gripping a coupling member 24.

FIG. 6 shows an adapter 86 preferably used for gripping smallercouplings. Adapter 86 includes spaced blocks 88, 90 and a handle 92welded thereto to hold the blocks in proper spaced-apart relationship.Each block 88, 90 terminates at one end thereof in a respective internalflange 94, 96. Upwardly extending slots 98, from the bottoms of therespective blocks are adapted for mounting blocks 88, 90 respectively onarms 76, 78 as shown in FIG. 7. Blocks 88, 90 and their respectiveinternal flanges 94, 96 provide an opening for inserting and gripping asmaller coupling member than coupling member 24.

Pulling means 28 for moving gripping means 26 to pull coupling member 24away from support 6 to remove shank 22 from hose 20, includes aconventional, reciprocable cylinder 102 mounted on frame 4, one pipe 104for actuating fluid being shown. Cylinder piston rod 106 connects thecylinder and crosshead 64. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, threaded portions108 on the rod and crosshead may be connected together in the usualmanner. It is preferred that the pulling means 28, gripping means 26,support 6, coupling 18 and hose 20 have substantially a common axis.

In operation, cylinder 102 is actuated to move gripping member 26 to theright as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. When coupling 18 has a smooth flankportion 34 that is much shorter than shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, grippingmember 26 is advanced to the right until arms 76, 78 thereof passthrough notches 110, 112 in opening 12 in plate 8 as shown in FIG. 3. Toextract a coupling 18 from a hose 20 the combination is dropped into theapparatus so that the coupling member 24 is then received in the openingin gripping member 26 provided by the end 84 of block 70, arms 76, 78and internal flanges 80, 82 thereof. Flange 32 on shank 22 of coupling18 is then placed in opening 40 in the lower half 42 of a hingedretaining plate as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. The end of hose 20 is placedfirmly against that portion of plate 42 surrounding opening 40 and isalso placed firmly down on pins 62, when said pins are used. Plate 44 isrotated into place to abut plate 42, clamping lug 50 is rotated intoplace in slot 54 of plate 44 and handle 56 is properly rotated to holdtogether the halves of retaining plate 14. Cylinder 102 is now actuatedto move gripping member 26 to the left as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 untilretaining plate 14 abuts supporting plate 8. Continued actuation ofcylinder 102 will continue to pull gripping member 26 to the left, withconsequent removal of serrated shank portion 30 of coupling 18 from hose20. The extracted coupling 18 and hose 20 may be separately removed fromapparatus 2 and the parts thereof ar ranged as described hereinabove toextract another coupling from a section of hose.

It can therefore be seen that the apparatus 2 is a much safer tool forremoving couplings from hoses than the tools that have been used in thepast. The couplings are extracted without damage thereto. Also, thetotal time required to set up the apparatus to extract couplings isusually no more than some minutes, while prior methods and tools haveoften required hours of hard work to do the same job.

While a number of embodiments of our invention have been shown anddescribed herein, other adaptations and modifications will be apparentwithin the scope of the following claims.

We claim:

1. Apparatus for extracting a hose coupling from a hose, said couplinghaving a shank inserted in said hose and a coupling member extendedaxially outwardly from the end of said hose, said apparatus comprising;

a frame:

means mounted on said frame for gripping said coupling member;

a stationary support on said frame having an opening therein in whichsaid coupling is inserted to a position with the end of said hoseabutting against the surface of said support about said opening;

said stationary support including a vertical plate mounted transverselyon said frame intermediate the ends thereof and having an openingtherein in which said coupling is inserted;

means for actuating said gripping means to pull said coupling memberaway from said support to remove said shank from said hose;

said gripping means including:

a crosshead mounted for linear movement with regard to said plate;

a block mounted on said crosshead; and

a pair of arms extending outwardly from said block for grippingengagement with said coupling member.

2. Apparatus of claim 1 wherein the extremities of said pair ofoutwardly extending arms terminate in internal flanges and an openingprovided by said block and pair of arms for inserting said couplingmember.

3. Apparatus of claim 2 including:

a pair of spaced blocks, means for holding said blocks in spaced-apartposition, an extremity of each of said blocks terminating in an internalflange, said blocks having slots therein to insert said blocks upon saidpair of arms and an opening provided by said pair of spaced blocks andinternal flanges for inserting and gripping a coupling member.

4. Apparatus of claim 1 wherein the means for actuating said grippingmeans includes a reciprocable cylinder mounted on said frame and a rodconnecting said cylinder and said crosshead.

1. Apparatus for extracting a hose coupling from a hose, said couplinghaving a shank inserted in said hose and a coupling member extendedaxially outwardly from the end of said hose, said apparatus comprising;a frame: means mounted on said frame for gripping said coupling member;a stationary support on said frame having an opening therein in whichsaid coupling is inserted to a position with the end of said hoseabutting against the surface of said support about said opening; saidstationary support including a vertical plate mounted transversely onsaid frame intermediate the ends thereof and having an opening thereinin which said coupling is inserted; means for actuating said grippingmeans to pull said coupling member away from said support to remove saidshank from said hose; said gripping means including: a crosshead mountedfor linear movement with regard to said plate; a block mounted on saidcrosshead; and a pair of arms extending outwardly from said block forgripping engagement with said coupling member.
 2. Apparatus of claim 1wherein the extremities of said pair of outwardly extending armsterminate in internal flanges and an opening provided by said block andpair of arms for inserting said coupling member.
 3. Apparatus of claim 2including: a pair of spaced blocks, means for holding said blocks inspaced-apart position, an extremity of each of said blocks terminatingin an internal flange, said blocks having slots therein to insert saidblocks upon said pair of arms and an opening provided by said pair ofspaced blocks and internal flanges for inserting and gripping a couplingmember.
 4. Apparatus of claim 1 wherein the means for actuating saidgripping means includes a reciprocable cylinder mounted on said frameand a rod connecting said cylinder and said crosshead.